Let marijuana, banking mix

Portland Press Herald

(Maine), Jan. 5, 2016

It is an absurd flaw that members of a large and statesanctioned industry such as medical marijuana are forced to conduct business largely in cash.

Few other legitimate industries — and the highly regulated, $3 billion-a-year legal cannabis industry is certainly legitimate — would be allowed to suffer for long in such a peculiar way without legislative action. Yet attempts to fix the situation have so far stalled.

That delay has hurt countless business owners and health care providers, including many marijuana caregivers in Maine, who cannot fully rely on banking services because they deal with a product that federal law considers illegal.

Congress should move swiftly to pass legislation that ends this confusion, and gives financial institutions the unambiguous right to work with organizations that legally sell marijuana.

Right now, there is very little clarity or reliability in banking for Maine’s medical marijuana industry, which last year accounted for $60 million to $75 million in sales.

Marijuana may be legal as a prescribed medicine in Maine, but to the federal government it is still a Schedule 1 narcotic, in the same category as heroin and cocaine.

For federally chartered banks, taking the business of the state’s legal growers and dispensaries exposes them to risks, such as penalties for money laundering, that are not present with other businesses.